


Grace

by BadassBurgess



Category: Professional Wrestling, World Wrestling Entertainment
Genre: Accidents, Action/Adventure, Drama, F/M, Fire, Love, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-29
Updated: 2020-02-29
Packaged: 2021-02-28 00:01:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 12,148
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22960609
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BadassBurgess/pseuds/BadassBurgess
Summary: Roman Reigns is nearly killed in a fire at his apartment building. He only makes it out alive thanks to the help of a woman he has never seen before. Will he be able to track her down and thank her for saving his life?
Relationships: Roman Reigns/Original Female Character(s)
Kudos: 2





	1. Chapter 1

The sound of screaming woke Roman Reigns. Or maybe it was the fire alarm. Wait, screaming and a fire alarm? Roman thought as he jerked properly awake, sitting up in his bed.

"Holy shit!" he cried, realising that his apartment was full of grey, acrid smoke. As a firefighter, he knew that he was already lucky to be alive. The smoke could easily have killed him in his sleep. If he wanted to stay alive, he had to get out of the building, fast. Living up on the sixth floor, it wasn't going to be an easy task if the fire was extensive, which the amount of smoke suggested.

Scrambling out of bed, he grabbed the t-shirt and sweatpants that he had tossed on the floor before getting into bed. It took him a matter of seconds to put them on. He didn't waste time trying to find some footwear. Getting out was a matter of life or death. There was no time to lose.

Grabbing another t-shirt off the floor to cover his nose and mouth with, Roman hurried towards his front door. When he opened it, he realised that the situation was even worse than he had feared. The smoke was so thick in the communal hallway that he could barely see a thing.

"Fuck!" Roman yelled. He could no longer hear any screaming. The fire alarm continued to blare away. There was an even more worrying sound, too. He could hear flames crackling, although he couldn't see any fire.

Starting to cough thanks to the thick smoke, Roman stumbled down the hallway towards one of the stairwells. It was only his firefighter training that was keeping him relatively calm. Anyone else in this situation would have been justified in panicking. Barely able to see or breathe, he had only the recollection of the hallway layout to guide him towards the stairwell door. Within thirty seconds that felt like thirty years, he found it.

The door was propped open, he discovered. There was a real blast of heat coming up the stairwell, along with thicker smoke. There was fire below, he knew. There was no escape that way. Now he began to feel panic building. There was only one other stairwell, on the opposite side of the building. If that was blocked with fire too, he was dead. That was the grim reality of the situation.

Moving as low as possible to avoid the worst of the smoke, Roman coughed and spluttered his way back along the hallway. He turned a corner and bumped into a wall that he hadn't expected to be there. He was lost, he realised, to his horror. This was big trouble.

Stay calm and think, Roman told himself. Above him, he heard loud crack. He just about had time to look up and see the ceiling coming down on his head. Getting his hands up protected him from the worst of the damage, but he felt something strike the front right part of his head hard, and he fell to the floor. He felt the warm trickle of blood start flowing down his face.

I'm going to die here, he thought, choking even harder on the smoke.

"Get up! This way!"

It was a woman's voice. Roman could barely believe it. He looked in the direction it had come from and saw an olive skinned woman with long, dark curly hair standing only a couple of feet away from him.

"Come on! Get up! Follow me!" the woman said urgently.

Roman forced himself to get to his feet. Pressing the t-shirt over his face again, he followed the woman, just about able to see her through the smoke. The red top she had on stood out quite well.

Totally disoriented, Roman stumbled along the hallway after the woman. He saw her disappear around a corner. The smoke had gotten so thick that he fell into the stairwell before he realised he had found it by following her around the corner. The first flight was only six or seven steps. Roman rolled down them, landing on the large corner step.

When he got back up again, he couldn't see the woman anywhere. She had left him behind as she made her escape. Thankfully, the smoke was thinner in the stairwell, and there was no sight or sound of fire.

Still coughing and stumbling, Roman made his way down the stairs. The going got easier the lower her got, but he could tell the smoke had gotten to him. Or maybe it was blood loss. He felt himself getting weak. All he had to do was make it to the ground floor before he collapsed, and he would live.

On the second floor, his legs went from under him, and he fell onto another corner step.

Crawl if you have to. Just get out, he told himself.

"It's going to be okay. We've got you," a man's voice said.

Rolling onto his back, Roman looked up at a firefighter wearing breathing apparatus. It was the most welcome sight he had ever seen. The mask made the face hard to recognise, but the voice was familiar. It was one of the guys from the night shift at the fire station Roman worked at. The name escaped Roman.

"Help me get him up. He's a big guy," the firefighter said to his partner, who also appeared over Roman.

"Hey, that's Roman Reigns. He's one of ours; works on day shift," the other man said. "You're going to be okay, Roman. We'll get you out of here."

* * *

After being rescued from the burning apartment building, Roman had been rushed to hospital in an ambulance, where he had been placed on oxygen because of the amount of smoke he had inhaled, and had needed staples and heavy bandaging for a fractured skull from whatever had hit him during the ceiling collapse.

Within a few hours, he wasn't feeling too bad physically, apart from a banging headache. Mentally, he was in a weird place. On one hand, he knew that he was very lucky to be alive. On the other hand, everything he owned apart from his car had been in the apartment, and was now likely ruined or destroyed.

Lying in the room he had been given was boring. It didn't have a TV, meaning there was nothing to keep his mind occupied. For that reason, he was delighted when Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose walked in through the open doorway. The two visitors were housemates, and Roman's closest friends on his shift. The three men had been like brothers to each other for several years.

"Rome! Shit, man, Orton said you're lucky to be alive," Rollins said as he walked in.

Orton, of course, Roman thought. That was who the name of the first firefighter who had found him. He would have to buy him a beer in the near future.

"Bro, you look a mess," Ambrose said sympathetically as he sat down on the one plastic chair in the room.

Roman pulled the oxygen mask down, leaving it around his neck. "I'm supposed to leave that on until they tell me otherwise," he said, his voice rather hoarse thanks to all the coughing he had done. "Thanks for coming down."

"As if we wouldn't," Rollins said. "We saw the news as soon as we got up. Obviously we recognised it was your place. Dean called the fire house to ask about you, and we learned you were here."

"Lucky to be alive by all accounts," Ambrose said.

"I thought I was done at one point," Roman admitted, shaking his head at the frightening memory. "I found a stairwell, but it was on fire. There was no way I could use it. I had to try and find the other one, but the smoke was so thick. I got lost in it, couldn't breathe, then the ceiling collapsed on me. That's how I got this," he said, pointing to the bandaging around his head.

"Might have knocked some sense into you," Ambrose said, a weak attempt at banter that drew smiles from the other two.

"I was lying there thinking that was it, then suddenly there was a woman standing there. I've never seen her before. Pretty sure she doesn't live on my floor. She was dark skinned. Not black, maybe middle eastern or something. She was very good looking. Anyway, she told me to get up and follow her. That's how I found the other stairwell. I don't know if I would have made it if she hadn't been there. Honestly, I think she saved my life. Unfortunately I lost her on the way down the stairs. Hopefully I'll see her again, and I'll be able to thank her."

"Sure sounds like you were lucky she was there," Rollins said.

"Lucky is right," Ambrose said. "Rome, do you even know how bad the fire was? We were worried that you wouldn't have made it when we saw the news footage."

"It was that bad?" Roman asked.

"Show him," Ambrose said to Rollins, who was much better at anything to do with technology than him.

"I'm on it," Rollins said. He got up and moved over to the bed to show Roman a YouTube video. The title of the video was Badbury Apartments Fire with the date in brackets.

When his friend played the video, Roman was shocked by what he saw. It must have been taken after his escape, for the entire building seemed to be going up like a roman candle. There had to have been people killed.

"Fucking hell. How could that happen? Are there deaths?" Roman asked incredulously. Fire codes stipulated that the apartment where the fire started should have been able to contain it. A fire in a stairwell should have been restricted to that stairwell.

"Unfortunately there are a number of people missing, feared dead. Apparently the fire spread through the cladding on the outside. There's video footage of bits of it falling off, on fire," Ambrose said.

"They covered a building in cladding that wasn't fireproof?" Roman asked, even more incredulously than before. It brought on a coughing fit, so he put the oxygen mask back on for a moment.

"Looks like it," Rollins said. "Listen, man, you're going to need somewhere to stay when they let you out of here. We've got room. It'll mean sleeping on the couch, but it pulls out into a bed."

"Thanks, guys. They told me it'll be a day or two before they cut me loose. Looks like I'll be starting over, pretty much."

"I've got you, man," Rollins said. "I've still got a bunch of the money my dad left me in savings. Take as much as you need to get help with getting yourself fixed up. Pay me back as and when you can."

Roman lifted his mask again, and offered a fist bump. "I appreciate you. Both of you."

Rollins and Ambrose stayed for almost an hour before they had to leave. Life was going on, and they had a shift to work.

"Take this key," Ambrose said, putting a spare on the stand next to Roman's bed. "If you get discharged while we're at work, get a taxi to our place. If not, call us and we'll pick you up."

"I don't even have a phone," Roman realised, shaking his head.

"We'll get you fixed up. I'm sure I've got a spare shoved in a drawer somewhere," Rollins said. "Rest up. If you're still in here tomorrow, we'll come visit again."

"Thanks, guys. Stay safe," Roman said.

"You too," Ambrose said. "Or is it a bit late for that?"

All three of them laughed as the two visitors left the room, Rollins closing the door behind them. Roman put his mask back on and lay back, feeling tired. From his position, he could still see through the window in the door. Suddenly, he bolted upright. A nurse had just gone past his room, walking with an olive skinned woman with curly, dark hair. He had only gotten a quick glimpse, but he knew for sure that it was the woman who had helped him during the fire.

"Hey!" Roman shouted after pulling his mask down.

It was no good. The woman was already gone.

"One day, somehow, I'm going to find out who she is and thank her," he vowed.


	2. Chapter 2

A full day in hospital had been more than enough for Roman. His headache had improved, although it was still lingering. Twelve hours on oxygen had helped to relieve his coughing problem, meaning that physically, apart from the stapled cut on his head, he was over the effects of the fire.

His life, however, was turned upside down. As he had feared, all of his worldly possessions apart from his car and the clothes he had escaped the building in had been destroyed. He was faced with starting his life over. On the plus side, he was alive, had a job, and had friends who were happy to put a roof over his head and support him while his insurance claim was processed.

The friends in question were Dean Ambrose and Seth Rollins. They had done him the additional favour of coming to pick him up from the hospital before their shift.

"Thanks again for this. I feel like I keep saying it over and over, but I really do appreciate it. I'd be screwed right now without you guys," Roman said as they walked out into the parking lot.

"It's all good. You really don't need to thank us," Rollins said. "We know you would do the same for us if it was us in the shit, and that's all we need to know. The couch is yours for as long as you need it."

"The main thing is that you're healthy, or at least you will be once your head is healed," Ambrose said.

Mainly due to the head injury, Roman had been told to stay off work for at least a week to recuperate. When the week was over, he would report to the fire station for assessment, and then return to work, he assumed. Personally, he would rather have gotten straight back into it. Sitting around idly was not his style at all. But then it did give him time to deal with the insurance company and the presumably endless paperwork they would want filled in for his claim.

"The sooner I'm back the better," Roman said. "I know this insurance claim is going to be a pain in the ass."

"No doubt," Rollins sympathised. "You know what they're like, they'll probably try and make it as hard for your claim to go through as they can."

Dean and Seth had managed to get a parking space quite near to the hospital's front entrance, so they were soon in the car. The short three block journey to their house didn't take long.

"I've drawn out some cash for you," Rollins said when they walked into the living room. He picked up a stack of bills and handed them over to Roman. "Go out and get yourself some clothes and whatever other essentials you need."

"In the meantime, we emptied out your locker at the station," Dean said, pointing to a holdall that was sitting near the table. "There's a few things in there for you."

"Thanks, guys, again," Roman said with a smile. "Honestly, I can't wait to have a wash. I feel disgusting. After that, I'll head out for breakfast, then go clothes shopping."

Rollins clapped him on the shoulder. "Enjoy. Make yourself at home. We'd better get our asses to work before we're late."

"Alright, stay safe," Roman said, exchanging a fist bump with each of them.

As soon as his friends left, Roman hit the shower. Unfortunately he couldn't wash his hair as he had been told not to get the bandage around his head wet for a couple of days, but washing the rest of his body made him feel somewhat human.

The next priority became food. He hadn't been able to force down much of the muck that he had been served with in the hospital, so he felt like he was half starved. There was a diner just down the block that served a good fried breakfast, he knew from experience. It seemed like the perfect place to go, so he put on a change of clothes and headed out.

As he walked to the diner, Roman received a few curious looks from passers-by. Yes, I've got a bandage around my head, it's not the strangest thing on the face of the planet, he thought.

He felt his stomach rumbling when he opened the door to the diner and walked in, being hit by the smell of food. Looking around, he saw that the place was reasonably busy, with people eating breakfast and others drinking their first morning coffee.

Roman's eyes widened and he almost had to do a double take. Sitting alone at a window table near the back of the diner was the woman who had helped him during the fire. He had thought about her a lot in the past twenty four hours, so he knew for sure that it was her. He had been keen to encounter her again one day, but he hadn't expected it to happen this soon. It was a small world, he thought.

I should go over to her and thank her, he decided. The least he could do after she had saved his life was buy her a coffee. She was truly beautiful, he thought as he approached her. If someone had asked him to describe his 'type', she would have been the perfect example of it.

The woman was looking out of the window when Roman reached her table, so he spoke quite softly to avoid startling her. "Hi. I wasn't sure if I'd see you again."

The woman seemed surprised when she turned to look at him, but then she smiled. It was a truly gorgeous, toothy smile that Roman could have looked at all day. "You're the guy from the fire! I'm so glad you got out okay."

"Likewise," Roman smiled. "Honestly, I don't think I would have if you hadn't shown up, so I want to thank you."

"You have nothing to thank me for," she said easily. "I could hardly have left you there. Please, have a seat."

"Thanks. I'm Roman," he said as he sat down opposite her.

"Grace," she announced with a smile.

A lovely name as well as a lovely smile, he thought. "Nice to meet you, Grace. I can't believe I bumped into you already."

"Small world, huh?" she said with another smile.

"It sure is. Forgive me, but I don't think you lived on my floor?"

"No, I didn't live there," she said, choosing not to elaborate.

"Well, I'm lucky you were there that night. I'm going to have a breakfast. Can I buy you anything? I figure it's the least I can do."

"Thank you for the offer, but I only came in for a coffee," she said, holding up the half full cup in her hand. "Anyway, you thanked me. You don't have to do anything more than that. Looks like you got a nasty knock on the head. I remember you were bleeding."

"Yes, the ceiling collapsed on me. I don't even know what hit me. It's going to keep me off work for at least a week."

"What do you do?" she enquired.

"Believe it or not, I'm a firefighter."

"Ironic," she said, giving a small smile.

"Right? How about you? What do you do?"

"I'm a psychologist. I like helping people."

"Me too. I guess we just go about it in different ways," Roman said.

Grace smiled again. It seemed to come easily to her. Her eyes were gorgeous too, he thought.

"Yes, I guess we do," she said.

Roman picked up a menu to have a look at the breakfast offerings. He was frustrated with himself that he wasn't better at making conversation with people when he first met them. Luckily for him, Grace took the lead.

"You lived in that building, then?" she asked.

Roman nodded. "I did."

"That's awful. You must have lost everything. I'm really sorry to hear it. Where are you living?"

"Luckily, a couple of friends have room for me until I'm sorted out. I'm very grateful to them."

"I'm glad you've got something lined up," Grace said.

"Thanks. I got unlucky, but then lucky. Someone has to be held to account for that fire though. I heard more than twenty people died."

"Twenty four," Grace said, shaking her head sadly. She downed the rest of her coffee and put the cup on the table. "Roman, I've got to go. It was good to meet you. Maybe I'll see you around."

"Are you in here often?" he asked hopefully. He was strongly attracted to her, and wanted a chance to get to know her better.

"I'm in the area quite a lot," she replied. "I'll see you." She got up to leave.

"See you. Have a good day," Roman said, smiling as they parted ways.

"You too," she said. And then she was gone, walking towards the main entrance, which was behind him.

If Roman had a cell phone he would have sent a text to Dean and Seth about the chance encounter. But since he didn't, he sat there and decided to have breakfast here every day, even with the apparent slow service. He wanted to see Grace again, and was determined to make it happen.

"Good morning," a young waitress said, finally appearing to take his order.

"Morning. I'll get the large breakfast and a coffee, please," Roman said.

"Sure. Uh, sir, are you okay?" she asked cautiously.

"What?" Roman asked before he remembered that he had a bandage wrapped around his head. "Oh, yeah. I was in the Badbury Apartments fire the other night. Got a tap on the head on the way out."

"I'm sorry to hear that. I'll see if I can get you your coffee on the house."

"That's very kind of you," he smiled. Yes, he decided, breakfast here for the foreseeable future.


	3. Chapter 3

Roman's first day in his temporary accommodation had been a successful one. He had gotten through the paperwork for the insurance company, and had even been given a promise, for what it was worth, that all claims from the Badbury Apartments disaster were going to be processed as speedily as possible.

With the paperwork done, Roman had gone out to start buying himself some new clothes. He had made some progress, but the local stores didn't have a lot to offer.

His last job of the day had been to go and reclaim his car from where he had parked it near to the now-destroyed apartment building. Seeing the burned out shell that had once been his home had not been a pleasant experience. One thing he had decided for sure was that he would never live in apartment block again. As a firefighter, he should have known better to begin with. His next home would be in a house, where it was much easier to escape in the event of a fire.

Roman's second day of living at Seth and Dean's place had started with breakfast at the diner again, in the hope of seeing Grace. Sadly, she hadn't been there. It had been a disappointment, but he remained determined to keep going there, confident that he would soon bump into her again.

After breakfast, his plan was to drive out to a mall a few miles away, where there would be a much better selection of clothes retailers for him to look around.

Approaching an intersection, Roman saw the light turn green. He put his foot down to accelerate, but then his eye was caught by someone waiting at the crossing. She had long, curly dark hair and olive skin. It was Grace, he realised as she got closer. Without really thinking about it, he slowed down slightly.

Happening to look in his direction, Grace saw him and recognised him. She gave him one of the brilliant toothy smiles that he was so struck by, and she waved at him. Roman waved back, then returned his attention to the road. He was about to speed up again when a pickup truck screamed through the intersection from his right to left. There was a cop car flying after it, lights flashing and siren wailing.

"Fuck me!" Roman cried, slamming on his brakes. But the two vehicles were already gone. He had avoided being annihilated in a side on collision by a matter of yards. If he hadn't slowed down to wave to Grace, it would have happened.

Turning around in his seat to look back, Roman tried to see if she was still standing at the crossing, but she was nowhere to be seen.

"Thanks, Grace. That's the second time you've saved my ass," he said. Taking a deep breath, he got his car going again.

* * *

"I picked up some beers on my way home," Roman said. He took three bottles out of the fridge, quickly cracked the tops off them, and walked through to the living room, where Seth and Dean were sitting on the couch. They had just returned home from their shift, which they had reported as uneventful.

"Good man," Seth said, taking one of the bottles than Roman handed out. "How was your shopping trip?"

"Good, thanks," Roman said as he sat down on a chair that he had claimed since moving in. "I got myself fixed up with plenty of clothes, and I got a phone. I'll have to put your numbers in it in a bit, and get you my new number."

"Makes no difference to me, I won't call or text you," Dean joked. It was true, though. He had a phone, but almost never did anything with it.

"That I can believe," Roman chuckled. The bizarre chance encounter with Grace came into his mind again, as it had kept doing all day. The odds of her being there on that particular corner, at that particular moment had to be astronomical. It was the biggest coincidence he could remember happening to him. Wondering what his friends would make of it, he decided to tell them the story.

Roman drank some of his beer, then went into his story. "So, the weirdest thing happened today. Remember I told you last night that I saw Grace in the diner at breakfast?"

"How could we forget? You didn't shut up about her for like half an hour," Ambrose quipped, making Rollins laugh.

"Alright, alright," Roman groaned. "Anyway, I went to the diner again today to see if I could catch her again at breakfast. She wasn't there. I got on with my day, having my breakfast and then heading to the mall like I told you I was going to. On the way there, to my surprise, I saw Grace waiting to cross the road at an intersection. I slowed down to wave to her, then boom! A truck absolutely flew through the intersection from my right, running the red light. It was being chased by a cop car. If I hadn't slowed down when I saw Grace, it would have taken me the hell out."

"Wait, are you trying to tell us you think this random woman saved you from getting killed again?" Dean asked sceptically.

"I don't know about killed, but fucked up, yeah," Roman said. "I just can't stop thinking about it. Like, what are the odds of her being there on that corner, at that exact time, and of being on my floor while I was struggling to escape the fire. It's crazy when look at it like that."

"You have a guardian angel, dude," Seth said, smiling.

Roman laughed. He wasn't a believer in any kind of superstitious or paranormal nonsense. The way Grace kept popping up in his life was making him feel little bit crazy about though, not that he was going to say that to his friends. They could probably tell anyway.

* * *

By morning, Roman knew he had a problem. Or maybe it was the beginning of an obsession. He had dreamed about Grace. And it hadn't been any kind of boring dream, either. They had been having hot sex, for some reason in the showers at the fire station, such was the lack of logic in dreamland.

The dream had been seriously hot, and it had lingered in Roman's head throughout the morning while he had showered and gotten ready to go out for breakfast. It felt kind of odd to be so hung up on a woman he had only spoken to once, and knew almost nothing about. But the fact remained that he couldn't get her out of his head. Going to the diner in the hope of seeing her wasn't likely to help with that, yet he didn't care in the least.

As he neared the end of the short walk to diner, Roman found himself literally willing Grace to be there. He knew it was lame, but he just couldn't help it.

The first thing he did when he entered the building was look around, scanning the tables for Grace. His heart missed a beat when he saw her sitting at a table over to the left. This time she was facing him, and noticed him right away. One of those ludicrously pretty smiles appeared on her face, and she waved to him.

"We keep bumping into each other," Roman said as he approached the table where she was sitting.

"I know, right?" she said, grinning in amusement. "Have a seat. That was a close call you had yesterday with that idiot in that truck."

"Wasn't it?" Roman said as he sat opposite her. "If I hadn't slowed down slightly when I saw you, I'd have been taken out. That's twice I owe you now."

"I have a knack for helping people out."

"So it seems!" Roman exclaimed. "And I bet you're not even going to let me buy you a coffee?"

"Thank you, but I only have one each morning," Grace said politely. There was a quarter full cup of coffee sitting on the table in front of her.

From somewhere, Roman found a surge of courage. "How about dinner, then? I figure it's the least I can do."

Grace's eyes widened a bit and she smiled slightly, looking surprised. "You want to take me to dinner?"

"Yes, I do. If you're interested, I mean."

Grace thought about it for a moment. "I am interested, but I don't know when I'll be able to make it. I'm really busy lately. That sounds like I'm trying to avoid you, but honestly, it's true."

"I get it, it's fine," he said quickly. "We all go through periods where we're busy."

"I'll get in contact with you and we can work something out," she promised.

"Shall I give you my number?" Roman asked hopefully.

"Uh, yeah, sure," Grace said.

Roman attracted the attention of a waitress. When she came over, he ordered a coffee and a regular breakfast, and asked to borrow a pen. The waitress had one in her pocket, and was happy to hand it over.

Taking his phone out of his pocket, Roman looked up his own number in his contact list. When he found it, he wrote it on a napkin and slid it over to Grace.

She finished her coffee, then smiled, picking up the napkin as she stood up to leave. "Thanks, Roman. I'll see you soon."

It was a shame she had left so soon, Roman thought. Breathing in a waft of her perfume made him swoon for a moment. He found himself taking comfort in the way she had said she would see him soon. She had sounded sure that it would happen.


	4. Chapter 4

Getting back to work felt like something of a relief for Roman. He was always an active, busy person. Sitting around the house waiting for his busted head to heal up wasn't his style. Besides, he really did like his job, and wanted to return to doing it.

The first person to greet him when he arrived for his first shift in over a week was his captain, Vince McMahon. Somewhat uncharacteristically, the strict and sometimes hot tempered captain offered a handshake. "Reigns, welcome back. How are you feeling?"

"Thank you," Roman said as they shook hands. "I'm feeling good, ready to get back to work."

Good was the right word to choose. He was doing good, but not great. Much to his disappointment, he had heard nothing from Grace since the morning when he had given her his number. No call had come, and she had not been in the diner again for her morning coffee, at least not while he had been there. He had made a point of going every day, only succeeding in making his frustration worse.

Had he pushed too hard? Had he not seemed interested enough? Was she not into men? Was she even in town? Roman didn't have answers to any of those questions. Now he was starting to resolve himself to the likelihood that he wouldn't see her again, as sad as that made him feel. He had been quite smitten with her, but it seemed like it wasn't to be.

"At least now you're back we can get back to taking money off you if it's a quiet shift," Dean Ambrose said to Roman, referring to the poker games they would play for quarters on shifts where there were no call outs or jobs to do around the station.

"What are you talking about? You always lose," Seth Rollins shot back at Ambrose, and all three friends laughed. They had driven to the station together, which would now be the norm until Roman got his insurance pay out and moved into a new place.

"Never mind card games, start washing and polishing the trucks," Captain McMahon said sternly before he walked away.

"Now look what you did," Roman said to Dean. He then looked at Seth. "I really didn't miss working with this idiot."

"Sure you did. You'd be lost without me," Dean grinned.

* * *

Roman, Seth and Dean's first couple of hours of the shift had been spent cleaning the trucks, as ordered by captain McMahon. When the alarm went off to alert the station to an emergency, it came as something of a relief to Roman as it broke the monotony. He quickly helped his friends to move the cleaning supplies out of the way.

"House fire, 122 Mason Grove! Trucks one and two!" someone called out as the rest of the guys on the shift came running, piling into their trucks. Roman, Seth and Dean worked on truck number two of the four that the station had. This call out had been handed to them.

Jumping into the back seat of the truck, Roman felt no apprehension about getting back into action tackling a fire. What had happened in his apartment had been scary, but he had lived through it. That was it done as far as he was concerned. He would have not feared a call out to a house fire before, so he wasn't going to fear one now.

A house fire was quite rare for day shift. It was usually in the evening or overnight that people managed to burn their houses down. Day shift was more used to attending things like car accidents or fires at places of work.

On this occasion, the house in question was only a few minutes away from the station. That was a very good thing, Roman saw as the truck came to a stop outside. The ground floor of the house was well ablaze, with flames coming out of the open front door, and out of the windows to the right of it that presumably belonged to a living room. Even worse was what he heard a woman frantically shouting from the sidewalk.

"There's people in there! Hurry up for God's sake! There was a woman at the window a few minutes ago!"

Roman bailed out of the truck, putting his hat on, followed by his heavy jacket. The rest of the crew were doing the same, as captain McMahon, who rode with truck number one, started handing out orders. Shortly, Roman heard his name.

"Reigns, Ambrose, Rollins, Almas, gear up. Full breathing apparatus. You're going inside on search and rescue. Reigns, are you ready for this?"

"Yes, sir," Reigns assured him.

While Roman and the others got their gear on quickly as they could, the other firefighters started tackling the blaze with hoses. Police cars and ambulances had also started to arrive.

The experienced firefighters were quick to don their gear, so familiar were they with the task. Even so, by the time Roman had his breathing apparatus on and checked by Rollins, he could see that the fire inside the front door was pretty much extinguished. The team had moved on to the living room. Putting out the flames wasn't the end of the danger, though. Smoke was what killed most people who died in fires, as it had nearly done to him. Even with the fire out, the house would be full of smoke. Worryingly, there was no sign of the people who were reported as being trapped in the house. They were not at the windows anymore.

Roman and his team had to wait a minute or so for the fire to be fully extinguished, then they were sent in, with Roman leading the way.

The first thing Roman saw when he entered the house shocked him. It was apparent that the fire had started inside the front door. It looked like a small window in the decorative door frame had been broken, something flammable had been poured through, and it had been set alight. To make matters worse, the bottom of the stairs was close to the front door. Anyone who had been upstairs at the time would have had no chance of escaping what looked like an arson attack.

Moving up the stairs, Roman found the smoke getting thicker, as he had expected. The first door off the landing was closed. He pushed it open, not having the easiest time because someone had stacked pillows against it to try and stop smoke getting in. Immediately, he saw a woman unconscious on the bedroom floor.

"In here!" Roman yelled, alerting Ambrose and Almas, who would have gone to check other rooms. Roman hurried over to the woman and picked her up, handing her over to Rollins for immediate evacuation from the house. While he was doing that, he had noticed something that really chilled him. On the floor in between the bed and the window were two young boys, also unconscious.

Roman rushed over to the two boys, praying that the rescue was not too late. He picked up one of the boys and handed him over to Ambrose, then passed the other one to Almas. They would be carried outside for first aid to be administered.

Before leaving the room, Roman got down on the floor to look under the bed in case there was anyone under there. All he saw beneath the bed was a travel case. Satisfied that the room was clear, he got up and walked towards the door.

When he emerged onto the landing, Roman almost jumped out of his skin. There was a firefighter standing there looking at him. Not only did that not make sense because the only three others ordered to enter had just left, he could tell that they eyes behind this firefighter's mask belonged to a woman. In fact... No, that wasn't possible. Even with the thick smoke and the woman's nose and mouth covered by the black silicone part of the mask, he could distinguish a familiar olive skin tone.

"Roman, there's still someone in that bedroom," Grace's voice said, muffled under the mask.

"Grace? What the fuck?" Roman asked in utter bewilderment. "How did you get in here? Where did you get that uniform and gear from?"

"Are you going to question me, or are you going to save the kid you missed?"

Head spinning, Roman charged back into the bedroom. "What kid?" he cried, unable to see anyone. He looked under the bed, but there was definitely no one there. The only possible place was a wardrobe in the opposite corner from the door. Roman rushed over to it and opened the door. To his surprise and horror, there was another young boy curled up in there, unconscious. He must have hidden himself in there after his mother had passed out. If it hadn't been for Grace, Roman would have missed him, and he would have certainly died, if he wasn't dead already. He felt mortified by it. The death could have been on him.

Scooping the boy up into his arms, Roman left the bedroom again, ready to demand answers from Grace. But he found the landing empty.

"Grace?" Roman called out. There was no answer. For a second, he felt fear grip him, thinking that she had wandered off into danger. But no, he thought. He didn't know what the fuck was going on, but deep down he was aware that what he had just seen could not have happened. Captain McMahon would not have allowed any member of the public anywhere near the house, much less inside it. There was also no way she could have gotten a uniform and breathing apparatus. There was something seriously strange going on. He needed time to try and think it through, to try and understand it. But first, he had to get the child out of the smoke-filled house.


	5. Chapter 5

"Maybe I'm going mental," Roman said quietly to himself. It was the only conclusion he could come to after what had happened at the house fire. For the rest of the day, he hadn't been able to stop thinking about Grace appearing on that landing. That was exactly what had happened, he knew. Grace had appeared on that landing, and then she had vanished again when he had gone back into the bedroom. It was the only explanation that made sense, even though it didn't make sense at all.

The facts were that captain McMahon would never have let a civilian anywhere near that house, and the rest of the crew certainly would not have stood there while a civilian out on a full uniform and breathing apparatus. Plus there was no way Grace could have known the boy was in that wardrobe. She hadn't been in the bedroom. Even Roman himself, who had been in there, hadn't known the child was there. There was one other fact in play: Grace had saved that boy's life. He and the rest of his family were in a bad way as a result of smoke inhalation, but they were all going to be okay after a stay in the hospital.

So who, or what, was Grace? That was what Roman couldn't comprehend. He didn't believe in ghosts. He didn't believe in the paranormal. But it didn't make sense that she was some kind of product of his imagination, either. He hadn't known that kid was in the wardrobe. He hadn't known that truck was about to blast through the red light and almost take him out when Grace had happened to be standing on the corner. So what the hell was the deal?

One thing he had quickly ruled out was telling Dean and Seth about what was going on. 'Hey, you know that woman I keep talking about? It turns out she randomly appears in my life from out of nowhere whenever she feels like it, including in the middle of a house fire.' He could only imagine the ridicule that would be met with. He couldn't complain, because he would ridicule it if the roles were reversed. Hell, it was ridiculous.

Dean and Seth had gone to bed a short time earlier, both seemingly noticing something off about Roman's behaviour. He appreciated that they hadn't asked him about it, since he wasn't ready to talk about it. He wasn't exactly ready to deal with it all, but he didn't have much choice. He needed answers, one way or another.

With his friends in their bedrooms, the house was quiet. Instead of setting up the couch for the night, Roman had decided to try something that even he thought was borderline insane.

"Okay, Grace," he said. "You want to keep appearing everywhere, why don't you do it now? Appear right here in front of me and tell me what the hell is going on, because I know there's no way you could have gotten into that house, or been able to put on that gear and breathing apparatus. So, come on, let's see you appear again."

Nothing happened. Of course nothing happened, Roman thought, asking himself what he had actually expected to happen. Had he really thought some kind of ghost was going to appear in front of him? If anyone had told him they were going to do anything even close to as crazy as that, he would have laughed at them.

"Okay, enough," Roman said, shaking his head in an attempt to dismiss thoughts of Grace from his mind.

For the first time since the fire, Roman decided to go onto Tinder. It was time he showed some interest in real women, not one who possibly wasn't even real. He had to download the Tinder app onto his new phone, then remember his login details. It took several attempts, but he eventually got the details right.

Unlike some users of the dating app, Roman didn't frantically swipe right on every person who came up, wanting to match with as many as possible. No, he took his time to make a decision on each person he saw.

Within minutes, he was totally focused on the task at hand. It had done its job of taking his mind off Grace. A picture of a truly gorgeous blonde woman appeared. Roman liked what he saw a lot, and he swiped right.

"Really?" Grace's voice said, making Roman jump out of his skin. He looked up and saw her sitting in the chair that he usually used. Looking as beautiful as ever, she was wearing a dark red woollen pullover, and black pants. It was a very homely look. "You're swiping right on that? That's a catfish account," she said.

As frightening as it was to have someone literally appear in the room with him, Roman's fear quickly subsided. After all, it wasn't as if Grace intended to harm him in any way. In fact it was the opposite, as he had found out more than once already.

"Don't look afraid, Roman," Grace said softly.

"I'm not afraid of you. I know you're not here to scare me or hurt me," Roman said, looking her in the eye. "But I obviously don't understand what's going on here. Who are you? What are you?"

"I'm Grace," she said simply. "Like I told you before, I help people."

"You told me you were a psychologist," he pointed out.

"Yeah," Grace sighed. "Well, it was the closest description you would understand at the time."

Roman could not believe this was happening. He was sitting in the living room of his friends' house, having a conversation with some kind of ghost or something. And it wasn't even the first conversation they'd had.

"I know your name, or maybe I should say what you call yourself," he said. "What I asked was who, or what, you are. I mean, come on, you just appeared in my house. Are you real?"

Thinking better of waiting for an answer, Roman got up and moved over to Grace. She said nothing and made no attempt to stop him as he slowly reached out a hand towards her cheek.

Roman expected his hand to pass through Grace. He was so shocked when he made contact with what felt like a perfectly normal, slightly warm, human being's cheek that it was him who flinched back.

"Are you done?" Grace asked, raising an eyebrow.

"You're... You feel real," Roman stammered. "I can touch you."

Grace nodded. "You can touch me. You can talk to me."

"And you can appear and disappear. I feel like I'm going mental right now."

"I understand that. If I had a great explanation to give you, I would. The truth is, I don't know what you would call me or how you would describe me. I guess a guardian angel is the closest thing that people understand."

Roman slumped back onto the couch, feeling totally bewildered. He was sitting across from a beautiful woman who had just told him she was a guardian angel. How was this happening to him? Why was this happening to him?

"Guardian angels are a thing?" he asked sceptically. "I find that hard to believe."

"Even while you're talking to one," Grace smiled. "But I'm not an angel. The way you need to think of it is that you encounter dozens, maybe hundreds of people in a day if you go somewhere busy like a mall. You don't know any of them. You'd be surprised how many of them are like me. Some examples: You drop your wallet on the floor and some stranger picks it up and calls out to you to let you know. You fall asleep on a bus and someone wakes you up to tell you your stop is coming up. A little kid gets away from their parents and is about to run into a road, but a stranger manages to stop him before he gets hurt. Plus the examples you have experienced with me. That's what we do."

"We? Who is we?" Roman floundered.

"I don't have a collective name to give you. My name is Grace, that's all I can say. I was guided to you during that apartment fire because a good person was needlessly going to die."

"Guided to me how?"

"I don't know how it works. I appeared there knowing that I needed to help you get out. I saved your life, so we're linked now. I can't let bad things happen to you."

Roman was listening to her answers, but he couldn't process them. It was all too bizarre. "We're linked? What does that mean? You're going to keep appearing in my life?"

"Yes. I'll be around to help you when you need me. And you let me know you need me by thinking about me or talking to me, like you did a few minutes ago."

"So, you heard that?"

Grace nodded. "I did."

Roman suddenly imagined Dean or Seth hearing him talking and coming out of their rooms to see if he was okay. What if they found him talking to himself? They would think he was going insane.

"Grace, can other people see you?," he asked. "I mean, if my friends come in here are they going to find me talking to myself?"

Grace chuckled quietly. "Of course they can see me, I'm not a ghost. They can see me, hear me, talk to me, touch me, just like you can. Roman, I know this is all confusing right now. Trust me when I say I don't want to make you uneasy or anything like that. It might take some time for you to get used to seeing me around. I'm going to go now and give you time to process what I've told you."

"Is it wrong that I still find you really attractive?" Roman blurted out.

Grace shrugged. "Only if it's wrong that I find you attractive. I'm going to go now. I'll see you soon."

"I guess I will see you soon," Roman said as she got up. She walked out of the living room, and was gone. He was sure she had disappeared the moment she was out of his sight.

"Jesus Christ," Roman said to himself. He had some kind of guardian angel following him around, who could materialise whenever she wanted, and who he could talk to and interact with like any other person. And she was fully hot. And she had just said she found him attractive.

"What the hell is happening?" he asked. Thinking about it all was going to keep him awake all night, he felt sure.


	6. Chapter 6

A guardian angel, Roman thought as soon as he woke up the next morning. Grace had said she wasn't an angel, but it was the closest description that fit. Whatever the description, he now apparently had her looking out for him, making sure nothing went wrong for him. Not only that, she had alluded to the possibility of him making her appear by thinking about her or talking to her.

Roman had decided to put some of the things she had told him to the test. If he could effectively summon her, that was what he was going to do. And in the process he would find out if other people could indeed see her and interact with her. 'Okay, Grace,' he thought, intending his thoughts to make contact with her. 'I'm going to talk Dean and Seth into having breakfast at the diner before our shift. I want you to be there so that they can meet you.'

Time would tell if she really could answer his mental callings. There were other things that he wanted answers to as well. They had come to him after she had gone the night before, when he had been lying in his makeshift bed, failing to sleep. Top of the list was an explanation as to how she had appeared wearing a firefighter's uniform and breathing apparatus. The fact remained that he couldn't see how she would have gotten it from the truck. Maybe she could manifest herself in whatever outfit she chose, and had gone for that one because of the situation he had been in? He just didn't know.

It wasn't long before Seth and Dean emerged from their rooms for their first coffee of the day. The morning routine was coffee, showers, breakfast, then the ride to work.

Roman was turning the couch back into an actual couch after his night's sleep as Seth went through to the kitchen to get the coffee machine going. Meanwhile, Dean, who was the least enthusiastic among them about mornings, flopped onto the chair where Grace had sat the night before.

"Morning," Dean grumbled.

"Morning," Roman replied, somewhat more upbeat. He then raised his voice for Seth's benefit. "I was thinking we could all go to the diner for breakfast today. I was chatting to Grace, and I think she'll be there. You guys can meet her."

"You had me at breakfast," Dean said.

"Sounds good to me," Seth called through from the kitchen.

Okay, Grace, don't let me down. I need you to be there, Roman thought, hoping that she was indeed able to pick up on it.

* * *

When he followed his friends into the diner, Roman was delighted to see Grace sitting over on the right side. He wasn't totally sure, but he thought it might have been the same table she had been at the first time he had met her.

What she had told him seemed to be holding up. He had 'spoken' to her and told her to be there when he came in, and there she was. Now, he supposed, was the next test. Would Seth and Dean be able to see her? Or was he about to get confirmation that he was insane?

"There she is," he said, starting to lead his friends over to the table.

"You were right, she is hot," Dean mumbled.

Thank god, they can see her, Roman thought. It felt like he had just gotten over a huge hurdle.

"Morning, Grace. Nice to see you again," Roman said with a smile.

Grace beamed back at him with that smile that pulled him in a like bee smelling pollen. "Hi, Roman. Who are your friends?"

"Seth, and Dean," Roman said, motioning to each of them as he said their names. "These are the guys I told you about, who are putting a roof over my head."

"Nice to meet you," Grace smiled. "From what I've heard, you guys have been very good to Roman."

"We do our best," Seth grinned, sitting down opposite Grace. Roman sat beside her, while Dean sat next to Seth.

"Seems like we're not the only ones," Dean said. "You saved the big guy's life twice in a matter of days."

"It's a talent I seem to possess," Grace smiled.

"It's lucky you do," Seth said. "It must have been awful in that apartment building."

"I'd rather not talk about it. I'm not exactly used to being around fire the way you guys are," Grace said.

Nicely done, Roman thought, figuring out that she was skilfully avoiding potentially having to talk about the situation that she had appeared into that night.

"Of course, sorry. Didn't mean to upset you," Seth said.

"It's fine," Grace said, sipping from her coffee cup. She promptly changed the subject. "So, what do you guys do when you're not fighting fires?"

"We're all wrestling fans," Seth said. "With the amount of content WWE put out, there's something for us to watch pretty much every night, if we want to."

"Well done, I think you just about made us sound nerdy enough," Dean quipped, drawing laughter from around the table.

"There's nothing wrong with being nerdy," Grace giggled. "Although I have to tell you I know nothing about wrestling, so I've probably just killed that as a topic of conversation."

I wonder if that's true, Roman thought. He had the impression that she knew a lot about pretty much everything. Or maybe that was him blindly assuming things?

"What about you then? What hobbies do you have?" Dean asked.

Good question, Roman thought. Did guardian angels have hobbies? Unsurprisingly, it wasn't a question that he had ever considered before.

The conversation was interrupted by a waitress showing up to take orders from the three men. When she departed, Grace answered Dean's question.

"I like hiking. The peace and quiet, away from people. And the beauty of the countryside. Sadly, we all have our day to day jobs, right?"

"Yeah. Roman said you're a psychologist," Seth said. "Seems like an odd career choice if you don't like being around people."

"Oh, don't get me wrong, I like helping people," Grace said quickly. "But that's my job. On my free time, I like to get away from it."

"I can understand that," Roman said. "Until recently, being in buildings that are on fire was something I tended to avoid during my free time."

Everyone laughed, making Roman feel glad that he could make a good joke about the awful thing that had happened to him. But then he remembered that a lot of people had died that night. It really wasn't a laughing matter.

The group chatted away over breakfast, almost like four old friends rather than three. Roman found himself having a great time until he actually thought about it, then he was thrown off, wondering if connecting with people so easily was another of Grace's abilities, if that was the right word.

"Guys, we'd better move if we're going to get to work on time," Seth said eventually, looking at his watch.

All three men had empty breakfast plates in front of them. Roman amused himself by thinking that coming here regularly to see Grace wasn't helping his arteries.

"I've got things I need to do, too," Grace said, joining them in getting up from the table.

"I'll go and get this paid for," Seth said.

"Thanks, man," Roman said.

Dean headed off towards the bathroom, leaving Roman to walk out into the parking lot with Grace.

"Roman, there's something I need to tell you, since it feels like we're getting close to each other."

"Oh?" Roman said, liking her turn of phrase. It was alluring to him, making him want them to get even closer in all senses of the word. Then he checked himself, wondering if he was mad. Wanting sex with a guardian angel had to be crazy, didn't it? Or did it? He had already established that he could touch her. She wasn't a mirage or a ghost. Maybe it was possible? Either way, it was a weird thing to consider.

"You do know I know what you're thinking, right?" Grace asked coyly.

"You know what people are thinking?" Roman asked, cringing at what she had just picked up on if she could.

"Of course. One of the biggest dangers to people is other people. And yes, it is possible for you to have sex with me. Let's not get ahead of ourselves though, huh?"

"Right," Roman said awkwardly. "So, uh, what did you want to say to me?"

Suddenly, Grace looked sad. "Roman, I didn't choose to be linked to you. That's not how this works. It just happens, and I get who I get. Sometimes it's someone I don't even like. Sometimes it is someone I like. On this occasion, with you, it's someone I really like. But I saved your life, as I was supposed to. That means I could be re-linked to someone else at any time."

"Oh," Roman said quietly, sadly. "And what happens then? You just disappear? And I never see you again?"

Grace sighed. "Yes."

"And there's no way to stop it? I mean, not that you necessarily want to stop it."

"Honestly, I don't know if it can be stopped." Grace turned towards the diner's entrance, where Seth and Dean had just emerged. "Your friends are here. I have to go." She waved to Seth and Dean as she started walking away. "Good to meet you guys."

"Yeah, you too," Dean called as Seth waved.

"You okay?" Seth asked Roman as they walked up to him.

No, he thought, watching Grace walk away. This might be the last time I see her, and I'm not ready for that.


	7. Chapter 7

Roman had been miserable for several days. Despite attempting not to let how he was feeling show to Dean and Seth, he could tell that it had shown, and that they knew something was wrong. In fact, he felt like they knew specifically what was wrong. Since they had all left the diner that morning, there had been no sign of Grace.

Hearing from her that one day she was going to disappear without warning had been bad. Even worse had been learning that she didn't know of a way to prevent it from happening. And even worse than that was that it had apparently happened already. As a result, Roman's head was a mess. In a short space of time he had nearly died, lost his apartment, discovered that guardian angels were a thing, fallen in love with his guardian angel, and then promptly lost her.

Maybe I should put myself in danger again to try and make her appear, he thought. It seemed like a stupid thing to consider, but it also seemed like it might be the only shot he had at having Grace stay in his life. But there was no guarantee that she would appear. Nothing might happen at all. Or a different guardian angel might appear. Either way, it wouldn't give him what he wanted.

"Have you still not heard from her?" Seth asked him. The three friends were sitting in their living room, with a baseball game on the TV. Roman realised he had been busted looking miserable and not watching the game.

"Heard from who?" he bluffed.

Dean roared with laughter. "Heard from who?" he mimicked. "Come on, Rome, we weren't born yesterday. You haven't mentioned Grace since we met her the other morning, and you're walking around all the time with a face like someone's pissed in your corn flakes."

"You have such a way with words," Roman said, putting a brave face on it. "Since you insist on having me talk about it, yes, I'm down because I haven't heard from Grace. Not a text, a call, or anything." He was getting used to lying to his friends about her. After all, telling them the truth was out of the question.

"That's women for you," Seth said cynically. "You shouldn't give up, though. It's only been a few days. She may well still get in touch. She might have just been busy this week."

"Yeah, I guess you might be right." She's probably busy being someone else's guardian angel, he didn't add.

Doing his best to force his melancholy mood aside, Roman tried to focus on the game. It actually worked, to an extent. The fact that it was a good game probably helped.

A knock came on the apartment's door.

"Really?" Dean exclaimed, annoyed at the interruption. "Seth, get rid of whoever that is, will you?"

"I don't have to, remember? No door answering for me for the rest of the month."

"Was that one of the things you won? I need to get better at poker," Dean grumbled as he reluctantly got up.

Roman laughed. "Are you two idiots really telling me you play poker for household chores?"

"Yeah. He won me having to clean the bathroom for a month too. Bastard," Dean said on his way to the door.

Roman turned his attention back to the game as a batter smashed a hit into centre field for a double.

"Nice hit," Seth said approvingly.

"Roman! Someone's here for you!" Dean called from over by the door.

Roman turned to look, and his heart skipped a beat. Grace was standing there. When their eyes met, she gave him one of those spellbinding smiles. He could hardly believe that she had shown up. And for reasons that he couldn't share with his friends, he was surprised that she had knocked on the door. If anything, he would have expected her to appear after Dean and Seth had gone to bed.

"Grace! Hi!" Roman said as he quickly got up. As he went over to the door, Dean headed in the opposite direction to go back to watching the game.

"Hi!" Grace said once Roman reached her. "I'm sorry I've not been around for a few days."

"Let's talk outside," Roman suggested. As much as he loved his two brothers, this wasn't a conversation that he wanted them overhearing. He stepped out of the apartment and closed the door. "I didn't think I was going to see you again."

"I guess at one point I thought that too," Grace said reflectively. "But here I am."

"Here you are," Roman said happily. "I couldn't believe it when I saw you at the door. I didn't think knocking doors was your style," he added with a laugh.

"It wasn't. I guess that's changed now though."

Roman's eyes narrowed in confusion. "What do you mean?"

"If you remember, the last time we spoke I told you that I might be assigned to help someone else at any time, and I didn't know a way to stop it."

"Trust me, I've thought about nothing else since," he said solemnly. "I couldn't stop thinking about you, Grace. I thought you were gone, and it was heart-breaking."

"I'm sorry I was gone so long. Putting you through that wasn't my intention. But I do have good news that I know is going to make you happy."

"Tell me," Roman said eagerly. He tried to read her face, but he couldn't work out what she was about to say.

"I won't be getting assigned to anyone else. I'm free to be with you forever."

Roman could barely believe what he had heard. It was the best possible news, but how was it possible? "Grace, that sounds beyond perfect," he beamed. "Please don't guarantee it if it's not one hundred per-cent for sure."

"It is one hundred per-cent for sure. I promise you," she said. With that, she put her hands on his cheeks and kissed him passionately on the lips.

The kiss meant everything to Roman. If there was a happier person in the world in that moment, he couldn't imagine how.

"I'll never be going anywhere again. No disappearing, no appearing, no anything."

Roman pulled back and looked her in the eye. "Wait, what are you trying to tell me, Grace?"

"I found out that the only way I could be with you and not be reassigned was to renounce my abilities completely and become mortal. So that's what I did."

"You became mortal? For me?" Roman gasped.

"I did, for both of us. I did it because I love you, and I know you love me. Love is something I've never experienced before. It's something I didn't even know I could experience. Once I had it, I couldn't let it go. I couldn't let you go."

"But if you've become mortal that means... Well, you can die, right?"

"Yes, but it also means I can live. My entire existence has been about helping other people. Now I can live for myself, and for you. Yes, one day I'll die, but I don't care. At least I will have lived."

"This is really happening. I can't believe it," Roman said, shaking his head. With that, he leaned in, and they kissed each other again. The smell of her, the taste of her, the feel of her tongue against his were all intoxicating. He had never felt anything like it before.

"How did you do it?" he asked eventually. "How did you become mortal?"

"I had to perform a very unpleasant, very exhausting ritual. It took me a couple of days to recover. I still am recovering to be honest."

"You need to recover, and we don't even have anywhere to live. I don't have a place. I hardly even have any possessions! Grace, this is insane."

"I know. That's what I like about it," she said. There was a gleam in her eye and a smile on her face. Hurling herself into the unknown seemed to be enjoyable for her rather than scary.

"I'll have to ask Seth and Dean if you can stay here. I hope you're okay with that? It's the best I can do."

"As long as I'm with you, I'm happy. One thing I know for sure after everything I've seen is that there's no situation that's impossible to deal with. We'll make something work."

"We will," Roman promised, and Grace kissed him once more. "Shall we go in and ask them? And shall we give them the good news?"

"I assume you mean the news about our relationship? I'm guessing they don't know my real story?"

"No," Roman said, smiling at the thought. "So, ready to go in?"

"Yes," Grace smiled back, blowing his mind like she always did.

Roman turned and knocked the door. He was sure Dean was none too pleased to have to have to get up and answer it again, which amused him.

"Come in and watch the game. We have beer," Dean said to Grace when he opened the door, not waiting for either of them to get a word in.

"Thank you," Grace said as she entered the apartment, with Roman close behind her.

Roman went into the kitchen and fetched a couple of beers from the fridge, cracking one open for himself and one for Grace. "So, guys, to cut a very long story very short, Grace is in need of somewhere to stay for a while. I know I'm constantly asking you for more and more help, but would you mind if she stayed here? It would just be until we can figure out something else, which will be ASAP."

"It's fine with me, but we don't have any more spare blankets or pillows," Dean said, already back watching the game.

"It's fine with me too," Seth said. "Grace, as long as it's not for too long, you can take my bed. I'll sleep on the couch and Roman's ass can sleep on the floor."

Roman looked at Grace and saw that she was thinking the same thing. "Ugh, we'll both take the bedroom, guys. We're officially in a relationship now," he proudly announced.

"Woah! How did that come about?" Seth asked, looking delighted for them.

Grace treated him to one of her trademark smiles. "You wouldn't believe me if I told you."

END


End file.
